There are certain inventions nations go all in on. These are inventions where everything depends on being first, and anything less could mean a strategic and mortal threat to a nation's survival.

These history defining inventions don’t come around often, but when they do, the world stops and a predictable future becomes hazy.

Throughout human history, humans have tried to cheat death. And for most of that human history, the best we could do is find eternity through the fruits of our minds or of our genes: be it cave paintings, works of fiction, inventions, or the memories of ourselves we pass on to our children.